// minimum of a list.
//@ ## Getting started
+
//@ Let us start by thinking about the *type* of our function. Rust forces us to give the types of
-//@ all arguments, and the return type, before we even start writing the body. In the case of our minimum
-//@ function, we may be inclined to say that it returns a number. But then we would be in trouble: What's
-//@ the minimum of an empty list? The type of the function says we have to return *something*.
-//@ We could just choose 0, but that would be kind of arbitrary. What we need
+//@ all arguments, and the return type, before we even start writing the body. In the case of our
+//@ minimum function, we may be inclined to say that it returns a number. But then we would be in
+//@ trouble: What's the minimum of an empty list? The type of the function says we have to return
+//@ *something*. We could just choose 0, but that would be kind of arbitrary. What we need
//@ is a type that is "a number, or nothing". Such a type (of multiple exclusive options)
//@ is called an "algebraic datatype", and Rust lets us define such types with the keyword `enum`.
//@ Coming from C(++), you can think of such a type as a `union`, together with a field that
// Now we want to *iterate* over the list. Rust has some nice syntax for iterators:
for el in vec {
- // So `el` is an element of the list. We need to update `min` accordingly, but how do we get the current
- // number in there? This is what pattern matching can do:
+ // So `el` is an element of the list. We need to update `min` accordingly, but how do we
+ // get the current number in there? This is what pattern matching can do:
match min {
- // In this case (*arm*) of the `match`, `min` is currently nothing, so let's just make it the number `el`.
+ // In this case (*arm*) of the `match`, `min` is currently nothing, so let's just make
+ // it the number `el`.
NumberOrNothing::Nothing => {
min = NumberOrNothing::Number(el); /*@*/
},
- // In this arm, `min` is currently the number `n`, so let's compute the new minimum and store it.
+ // In this arm, `min` is currently the number `n`, so let's compute the new minimum and
+ // store it.
//@ We will write the function `min_i32` just after we completed this one.
NumberOrNothing::Number(n) => {
let new_min = min_i32(n, el); /*@*/
min = NumberOrNothing::Number(new_min); /*@*/
}
}
- //@ Notice that Rust makes sure you did not forget to handle any case in your `match`. We say
- //@ that the pattern matching has to be *exhaustive*.
+ //@ Notice that Rust makes sure you did not forget to handle any case in your `match`. We
+ //@ say that the pattern matching has to be *exhaustive*.
}
// Finally, we return the result of the computation.
return min;
//@ computed that ourselves, but that's beside the point. More importantly:
//@ You completed the first part of the course.
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